A weekend of Great Beer, Food, Music and People! The NCHF is a congregation of homebrew clubs and homebrewers from Northern California and beyond. Homebrewers come and enjoy one and a half days of 100's of homebrews, live music, nationally known speakers, gourmet food and more. We have a Friday night Brewers Dinner where the 6-course menu is created and paired with some of the best Micro and Homebrewed beers available. Come, relax and have some homebrews while listening to The Jukes and The Studebaker Blues Band – Live.

Tent Camping is free and included in the entrance fee!

West Coast Ales Beer Competition

In keeping with this year's theme, the annual keg competition will feature 3 styles: California Common (Steam^tm), Amber Ales and IPA’s. Clubs can enter their beer in the competition on Friday evening, and up to 11 AM on Saturday. Popular vote judging, open to all festival participants, begins at noon, and finishes at 5 PM. There will also be a panel of judges to decide best of show among all the entries. KEGS ONLY - CO2, tap and Cooling vessel must be submitted with entry, sorry no exceptions.

One entry per style, per club; i.e. One club can enter one beer in both categories!  For more information contact Lisa Gros

Raffles

There will be Raffles all day long. Try your luck and buy some raffle tickets! We have BETTER prizes than ever this year, T-shirts to HB equipment! If know some person or Homebrew shop that would like to donate Raffle prizes, please contact Jim Fortes

Music

We have San Francisco’s own Blues Band, "The Jukes," who will be playing in the evening and "The Studebaker Blues band," will play the afternoon.

Speakers

The 2002 NCHF is proud to announce that FRED ECKHARDT will be a featured speaker of this years festival, along with FAL ALLEN from Anderson Valley Brewing Company & Pikes' and others TBA.

FRED ECKHARDT is a Portland, Oregon, based award winning beer and sake writer. He is a native of the Pacific Northwest, and a former professional photographer. Fred travels, writes and lectures about beer, brewing, homebrewing, and sake. He has written often and regularly about those subjects, including three books: A Treatise on Lager Beer (out of print), Essentials of Beer Style, and Sake (U.S.A.) (also out of print). He is America's first beer writer, since 1969; specializing in brewing, beer appreciation, and saké for newspapers and magazines.

FAL ALLEN first began home brewing in 1985 and has been intrigued by it ever since. He begged his way onto the staff of Red Hook in 1988 when they were still working out of a former Transmission Shop in Ballard. He had met the brewer, Rick Buccanan, at a local beer house and maintained the relationship by "dropping by to visit" with a bottle or two of his own homebrew until Rick finally hired him.

In 1988 he began his formal brewing career as a Cellerman for Red Hook in Seattle. He soon moved on to Pike Place Brewery, where he served as Head Brewer from 1991 to 1998. In addition to his workaday brewing credentials, Allen has written prolifically about the craft. He maintained a regular column in American Brewer under the title "I, Beer Thrall", and was co-author of "Barley Wine" in the Association of Brewers style guideline series. His byline appears regularly in other brewing periodicals. Additionally, Allen was honored with the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing by the Institute of Brewing Studies in 1999.

2000, Fal became General Manager of of Anderson Valley Brewing Co. in Boonville, CA. Allen's responsibilities at Anderson Valley include overseeing production, operations, sales, marketing, planning, and development. Fal states, "I'm delighted to be with Anderson Valley. It's stimulating to be part of a brewery that's making bold, interesting, and high quality beers. It'll be my task to protect and expand Anderson Valley's reputation as a leader in the craft brewing industry, and I welcome the challenge."

Club Representative

Your club needs a representative! Please contact Mike Winslow and he will keep you updated on all the latest NCHF happenings and be your contact for Club and general fest related Questions. It’s the Reps job to spread the word about the NCHF, be the spokes man for your club and contact for all festival related questions!

Volunteers

Please consider having at least one volunteer from your club, as your part of helping the festival be a success, and running smoothly.

Great working conditions wonderful open spaces in some of the most desired real estate in the Country. Music, friendly people, a virtually unlimited supply of libations, and a boss anyone could love. No, it's not the new Marines; it's NCHF 2002. Volunteers from all the clubs are needed to make this event a success. So sign up now! Contact Ira Cohen or phone: (work) 510 238-2187 (home) 707 745-3520 for an experience that money can't buy.

CLUB REPS and Registered VOLUNTEERS!

Don't forget that you will be part of the Friday night, West Coast Brewers Dinner, presented by Chef Sean Paxton, for the low, low price of FREE! That's right, nada, zip, zero, just for helping out with your favorite festival. All others must pay at registration time for dinner.

Club Booths

Each club will be provided a space for serving beer and food. The festival provides a table, but you are advised to bring your own shade and chairs, as it can be quite warm in the sun. We will be having a variety of awards for the booths this year!

Food

On Friday evening, Chef Sean Paxton is hosting the West Coast Brewers Dinner, Sean will be preparing a six course Brewers Dinner, created and served with matching West Coast beers. Homebrewed beer donations for this event are needed for both cooking, and serving with the meal. Please sign up for this once in a lifetime event when registering for the festival. Please contact Sean Paxton if you have a beer you would like to feature.

On Saturday, all clubs are encouraged to support this year's theme, and provide some food with a West Coast attitude.

Camping and RV Information

Camping is included with Festival Registration at no additional cost for both Friday and Saturday nights.

There is a limited number of "dry camps" RV spaces available. You must register in advance for these spaces. The fee is $12/night.